Under-threat meals on wheels service on Shropshire border saved
An under-threat meals on wheels service in a town on the Shropshire/Mid Wales border has been saved after a charity stepped in to take over the running.
Volunteers belonging to Mencap have agreed to take on the delivery of hot meals in Llanfyllin, which were due to finish as part of budget cuts by Powys County Council.
Mencap will take on the management of the service on a three-month trial starting from April 1.
In a letter sent to Llanfyllin Town Council, June Stacey, who runs the Llanfyllin branch of Mencap, said: "We will do a three month trial from April 1, which would mean delivering the first meals on April 2 and continuing on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the four people already in receipt of meals.
"Then if this is successful we can extend that service to other people.
"As Mencap is a registered charity we have all our public liability insurance in place already and all our staff have DAB checks.
"If any of the adults with learning disabilities that we work with help us and would need a DAB check we can facilitate that."
The charity will send two people with each meal delivered and could also include some of its clients who have learning disabilities on the rota.
Jonathan Bellingham said: "They want these people to be involved in the community. Whenever they go out on a delivery there will also be two adults as well.
"Any volunteers currently helping with deliveries who want to continue will be able to transfer to Mencap's service.
"Some of them will be standing down though."
The letter was read out at a town council meeting on Wednesday (FEB 18), where councillors also agreed a deal to have cars towed away and impounded if there are left unattended in the town's car park for several weeks.
Councillor Peter Lewis said: "It will be on a notice that they will be impounded after a certain time and it will cost £150 to get out of the pound. If this is not done between two to four weeks then the car will be sold or scrapped to retrieve the money."
The town's public toilets will also be mothballed by the town council in April.
The work will be carried out after the county council hands over services to local councils.
